A day before our cruise is scheduled to dock and we’re to
exit the ship, I must blog (albeit off line) about the experience… because as a
mom of two preschoolers, it’s been a doosy.
The ride down from home to the ship was long, yet the boys were quiet and
calm, overall. No meltdowns, no serious
issues whatsoever. The last half hour
the clock was ticking down and they’d just had it… which was completely
understandable and acceptable.
Ironically the day after, as we boarded the cruise ship, God love em,
they were horrific nightmare children.
They were so excited to finally be on “the big boat” that they couldn’t
contain themselves. They screamed and
cried throughout the boarding process (which, thankfully was done while we were
in our car, driving). They ran off the
minute we got into customs, and throughout the trip, well… let’s say they’ve
become well known little boys.
After waking up each morning and dressing, we (children)
grab our room key necklaces and charge out the door, screaming “I push buttons!!”
as our brother screams “NO!! I push
buttons!!” and so on, until we reach the elevator. Upon getting to the elevator we begin
pounding on the up/down buttons until the elevator arrives, laughing like fools
(and while mommy and daddy continue telling us no, stop!). Once in the elevator we push every button
except the red lit one—because we’ve learned through experience that is the 911
button for the ship. We got into trouble
for that already. When we get to the
breakfast/lunch/dinner buffet we run like fools to the drink area where we fill
our cups with juice and ask to eat outside—as either mommy or daddy manages
three plates of food while we sit, enjoying the oceanic view. After eating we typically run aboard the Lito
Deck (where we’ve just eaten) and get on stage to “dance”, though to most
adults watching, it appears like I’m playing/destroying the life sized chess
set the boat has up there. We’ve slowed
down on smashing the pieces into the ground, now we just ride them like we’re
at a rodeo.
We’ve gone to two places in the Bahamas.. Nassau and
Freeport (commonly known as Grand Bahama Island). Nassau we walked through town where the boys
managed to woo the natives into giving them toys galore. I believe we have a broken wooden car, broken
wooden airplane, a few t-shirts, several maracas (one that’s been broken and
sprayed a powdery mixture), two “walking turtles” and two straw Nemo
fedora’s—all for a mere $100 or so. We
also took a tour and boarded a semi-submarine which took us to three areas of
reef to see several tropical fish. We
were lucky to see an 8ft long sand shark laying at the bottom of the ocean as
well—which was amazing to us as tourists and just as amazing to the tour guide
as well. After we finished our tour we
went into customs and hung out a while.
There was a band that welcomed us in and Kaeden managed to bust out his
maracas and jump into song with them. It
shouldn’t have been a shock when he ended up on stage jamming with the
locals—but it was, none the less.
Freeport was far different in some aspects to Nassau. Nassau was a more expensive area—lots of
expensive designer shops while Freeport was devastated a few years back by a
hurricane. Most of their tourist area is
destroyed. There was a market about
fifteen minutes into town at Port Lucaya, and also a beach we were able to
visit. There was so much devistation that when Joel yelled "ooh wow!!" after seeing a Burger King with a playland the taxi driver said "Well, I haven't heard those words from anyone in quite some time!" In Port Lucaya, the boys went crazy as we saw and
played in the ocean for the first time.
Kaeden ran to the sand and began to immediately roll in it—as though
he’d just entered his own personal heaven.
Joel however wanted desperately to get to the water, preferably without
having to touch any sand whatsoever.
After a short while both boys were just thrilled to run, play, jump, and
splash around. It was great fun, and we
had plenty of opportunities to get great pictures as well. After the beach we did a little shopping at
the local market and had an authentic overly-priced Bahamian lunch. While the boys (daddy included) got very
Americanized food, I tried fried conch.
…glad for the experience as well as the awareness that I don’t like
conch.
The night we left Freeport the boat had a great celebration
and a bunch of dancing with a band on the boys favorite stage, on the Lito
deck. There was a band and dancers on
the stage, with several people dancing below it… and when Joel said he was
going to dance, I didn’t think anything of it… until I realized he had gone
through the crowd and began his way on stage with his crew. Mortified I began yelling “Joel, get down!!”
thinking he’d be in trouble or that he would get hurt. As I hadn’t expected Kaeden to get on stage
in Nassau and jam with the locals—I didn’t expect that the locals on the boat
would embrace Joel and get him jamming right along with them. There is a video on board of Joel, on stage,
doing what his bio siblings introduced me to as “the dougie” (though friends of
mine call it “waddle”). Ahh, to be young
and uninhibited again.
And now we’re into our last full cruise day… prepared to
leave tomorrow. We’ve got another few
days or so ahead of us in several different areas of the southeast. Savannah, Georgia; Jacksonville, FL; and
Chattanooga, TN along with trying to stop through Alabama at some point—just
simply to say we’ve been there. After
that our boys will have been to:
Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, South
Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Missouri, Michigan, Mississippi, Georgia,
Florida, Alabama, and Georgia I believe (meaning, I don’t believe there are any
more states they’ve visited at this point).
15 of 50 down in a mere three years… 35 left to go.
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